Levine Museum explores possible land sale, relocation
Levine Museum explores possible land sale, relocation
No decisions made, but ‘everything’s on the table,’ CEO says, as museums around the country search for ways to stay current
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LEDGER EXCLUSIVE
by Cristina Bolling and Tony Mecia
The Levine Museum of the New South is considering options to transform its physical presence in Charlotte, which could include selling its current location in uptown.
In an interview this week with The Ledger, museum president and CEO Kathryn Hill said that “everything’s on the table” as the museum’s leadership and its board explore many different possibilities for the museum’s future — including the fate of its existing building on 7th and College streets, which it owns and has occupied since 1996.
“For the last couple of years, we’ve been exploring a lot of options around renovation or relocation because the facility was never built as a museum, because it is inflexible and aging, and because this is a time of real change in museums in general and that’s forced a change in thinking about all of our needs,” she said. “Museums all over the country understand that adaptive change, real change has never been so necessary.”
She said the museum has made no decisions but has been having many conversations about how to position the museum for the future.
An eight-page internal planning document obtained by The Ledger offers some specifics about a possible future schedule for the museum. The document, dated in July, suggests that the museum’s building be prepared for sale in the remainder of 2020 by accomplishing tasks such as communicating with donors and the media, “deinstallation plans developed” and “collections decisions made.” “Due diligence” is listed as beginning this month. It says that the sale would close in the first half of 2021 and that a new campaign for “Levine Museum 2.0” would start in mid-2024, when there would be “decisions made about new facility.”
Asked about the timeline, Hill said it was “a hypothetical” and said that the museum’s land and building aren’t on the market.
Asked whether the building is under contract, Hill replied: “The building is not on the market, and we are exploring options.”
She added: “We have produced many timelines. They are all kind of hypothetical. Everybody you talk to in the business community will tell you how challenging planning of any kind is right now.”
The museum, which was formed in 1991 as a “museum without walls” before moving into a brick-and-mortar space five years later, occupies 40,000 s.f. of exhibit space, event space and offices. It added the Levine name after Family Dollar founder Leon Levine and his wife, Sandra, donated more than $1.25M toward a 2001 renovation. The Leon Levine Foundation did not return an email from The Ledger on Monday.
Mix of historical and current: The Levine Museum is a rare gem for Charlotte: Its historical exhibits, visited regularly by schoolchildren, showcase the transformation of the post-Civil War South from its agrarian roots to its textile industrialization to the Civil Rights movement to the modern-day city. But it also hosts community conversations on important and often uncomfortable topics and quickly creates exhibitions that respond to current events.
When protests gripped the city after the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a police officer in 2016, the museum opened its doors for a community conversation while other uptown businesses around it boarded up. Although its physical building has been closed during the pandemic, it is still active in holding online events, such as a community conversation on Thursday with CNN commentator and former South Carolina legislator Bakari Sellers.
In 2018, the museum launched the #HomeCLT interactive exhibition that includes augmented reality where users can use a phone app to access stories and historical material about places around Charlotte, either from inside the museum or from neighborhoods around the city.
Museums examining roles: Around the country, museums are asking a lot of questions about their missions, with many wanting to move beyond their traditional roles as keepers of a place’s history. Last week, the New York Times explored the debate over whether museums should be places that exhibit and research artifacts or ones that actively engage with political and social issues.
“Reaching people beyond our walls is absolutely a priority for us. And having a physical presence is also a priority for us,” said Hill, who came to the museum in 2016 after serving as chief operating officer at the History Colorado museum in Denver. “And I know the board believes strongly that uptown is where Charlotte’s cultural assets are, and where the cultural assets we really value are, and so that’s been folded into all of our thinking.”
The museum’s board is composed of local business and civic leaders. Any changes to the museum have more to do with its role in the community rather than financial issues, Hill said.
The museum’s most recent public tax filing, from 2017, shows that it had about $14.2M in assets, evenly split between its real estate and investment holdings. In the previous five years, it took in somewhere between $1M and $1.5M a year in grants and contributions, its main source of revenue, the documents show.
The museum has been able to maintain all of its 21 staff members (which includes four part-time workers) during the pandemic, Hill said. The museum received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan.
Of a potential move, Hill said: “Everything’s on the table. If we were to renovate there would be a period when we were not in (this space),” she said. “In my fantasy, we find an interim home so we are never without a physical presence. That’s my fondest desire.”
Big changes in the area: The possible changes at the museum come as there has been a recent flurry of activity in the northern part of uptown:
On the adjacent block toward Tryon Street, most of Spirit Square is expected to be demolished next year to make way for a new mixed-use development that will include shops, houses and office space, as well as a renovated McGlohon Theater and Duke Energy Theater.
On the same block as Spirit Square, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library plans to replace its aging main branch and is fundraising for a slick new $100M building. It plans to break ground next year.
Catty corner from the museum block, at North Tryon and 8th streets, Inlivian (formerly known as the Charlotte Housing Authority) has announced plans to build 368 mixed-income apartments — which would require tearing down the Hall House.
Two blocks toward NoDa along College Street, Lennar is finishing building a 33-story apartment tower next to a six-story building that will have apartments and retail.
Property records show that the museum occupies about 0.7 acres, which it purchased in 1994 at a cost of $1.2M. The county lists the appraised value of the site today at $7.7M.
On the museum’s block, records show there are two other property owners: Bank of America, which owns the land containing the Seventh Street Station parking deck, the 7th Street Public Market and two vacant restaurant spots; and an investment group that last year bought the former Cosmos Cafe location at 6th and College that contains Sabor, Topgolf Swing Suite, Jimmy John’s and other businesses.
Charlotte real-estate types say it might make sense for any redevelopment of the museum site to take place in conjunction with adjacent property owners.
Reach managing editor Cristina Bolling: cristina@cltledger.com
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire; Reporting intern: David Griffith
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